I have nothing witty to say here – I’m just still not over the fact that the bulkiest guy in this picture once thought he was a welterweight.

Only one month removed from his official light-heavyweight debut, Anthony Johnson returned to action in the main event of last night’s Xtreme Fight Night 9 against fellow UFC washout Jake Rosholt. It’s always a risky move to book more than one fight at a time, but in Johnson’s case, the abundant optimism wasn’t without its merits, as he shut out Rosholt’s lights with a head kick in the second round. Before you inevitably ask, no, Rumble did not miss weight, either.

The fight was reasonably close in the first round, but after an accidental eye-poke from Rosholt, Johnson went straight into beast mode. Jake Rosholt had no answers for Anthony Johnson’s aggressive striking, and was such a bloody mess by the end of the fight that the referee almost called the bout before the head kick. Perhaps the most interesting part of this fight was the fact that Johnson was able to take the three-time NCAA Division One Champion down; not exactly an easy task.

(Eventually, they had to hold a piece of roast beef above the camera just so Anthony would sit still. Props: @Anthony_Rumble)

Booking more than one fight in advance is usually the M.O. of check-collectors like Bob Sapp, who don’t really care about winning, and don’t plan on taking much damage anyway. It could also be the mark of excessive optimism — a clear sign that you’re looking past your next opponent. It’s safe to say that Anthony Johnson falls into that second category. As MMA Fighting reports, Johnson has been booked to face former UFC prospect Jake Rosholt in a light-heavyweight bout at Xtreme Fight Night 8 on September 21st — just four weeks after Rumble’s official light-heavyweight debut against Esteves “Quiet Riot” Jones at Titan Fighting Championships 24.

Rosholt, a former middleweight who was cut from the UFC following a first-round submission loss to Kendall Grove at UFC 106 in November 2009, has gone 6-2 with one no-contest since his stint in the Octagon, with five of those wins coming via first-round stoppage. Rosholt made the jump to 205 pounds in his last fight in June, but wound up losing to Matt Thompson via kneebar — a result that doesn’t bode well for his chances against Anthony Johnson. Then again, if Rumble gets injured or badly K.O.’d during his fight against Esteves Jones, Johnson vs. Rosholt might not even happen. Don’t order tickets quite yet, is what we’re saying.

XFN 8 goes down at the Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma; no other matchups for the event have been reported yet.

No, Ricco wasn’t involved this time. Props: Shark Fights on Twitter

If we were to tell you that Ricco Rodriguez was involved in another weigh-in fail during last night’s Shark Fights 17 at the Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco, Texas, it’s doubtful that too many readers would be surprised. The guy kind of has a history of missing weight. However, in a turn of events that prove even the MMA gods have a sense of humor, this time it was his opponent Karl Knothe coming in heavy for the 230 pound catchweight fight.

Those of you who remember our post from Thursday are probably a little confused for two reasons. Number one, we already told you that Karl Knothe has competed mostly as a light heavyweight, making it seem odd that he would show up overweight for a fight at 230. Also, we never mentioned that the fight was a catchweight bout. You’re not alone: No one told Karl Knothe about this, either. According to MMAJunkie.com: Both Rodriguez’s camp and Shark Fights officials said the bout was agreed to a catchweight of 230 pounds while Knothe allegedly believed it to be a heavyweight contest. When Knothe weighed in at 253.75 pounds to Rodriguez’s 227.75 pounds, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation disallowed Knothe from [Friday’s] event due to the large gap and concerns over excessive weight-cutting from the heavier fighter. In the same article, Shark Fight’s owner Bud Brutsman says that Karl Knothe’s manager never told him about the catchweight limit. Somebody needs to give this guy Mike Dolce’s number and a competent manager. Assuming “My manager didn’t tell me” isn’t a code for “Wow, I really botched that one, huh?”, of course.

(Props: SharkFights.com)

Just one month before he makes his Bellator debut against Seth Petruzelli, Ricco Rodriguez has one final tune-up match to get through. “Suave” will meet Karl “The Original Son of Punishment” Knothe — a Minnesota-based fighter who has won his last 12 fights by first-round stoppage —in the co-headlining bout of Shark Fights 17, which goes down tomorrow night at the Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco, Texas. Even though Knothe has primarily competed as a 205-pounder, the match is being held at heavyweight, which is a good thing considering that Rodriguez’s last two attempts to hit a weight limit under 265 have resulted in failure and more failure.

Ricco has been undefeated in 11 fights over the last two years, competing for 10 different promotions; the upcoming appearances for Shark Fights and Bellator will also be his first for those promotions, extending his epic transient streak. Rodriguez is coming off a decision win over James McSweeney at BAMMA 5 in February, followed by an unfortunate arrest in Arizona in May.

Shark Fights 17 will be headlined by a middleweight feature between UFC vets Matt Horwich and Jake Rosholt; the two fighters previously met at an Xtreme Fight Night event last November, in which Horwich won by third-round TKO. Check out the full card here.

Pulver vs. Davidson (video by Zuffaforce)

It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that we’d shell out $50 to watch Jens Pulver knuckle up with the top fighters in the world on the sport’s biggest stage. Those days are long gone, brother. Jens’ losing skid on the regional circuit was recently broken by a two-fight win streak, but last night we were reminded once again how far he’s fallen. Pulver took on Brian Davidson and it wasn’t pretty. Unable to match Davidson’s speed in the standup, Pulver looked to take this fight to the ground often, but he found little comfort on the mat. Following his first takedown Lil’ Evil ate an illegal up-kick that had him staggered; his second takedown yielded little action on the ground, and his third attempt ended with Davidson taking his back and securing the rear naked choke. After the fight, Pulver—who has lost seven of his last nine bouts–declared that he had no intentions of retiring and that he wanted to go out on his own terms. He’s a grown man and can do as he pleases, but let’s hope those terms don’t include a long string of KO losses.

In other action, UFC vet Jake Rosholt put a beating on John Ott until landing an illegal knee at 4:23 into the third round. Rosholt used his decorated wrestling background to put Ott on his back and work him over throughout the fight. The bout could easily have been stopped in Rosholt’s favor prior to the knee, as he opened numerous deep cuts across Ott’s face with elbows and punches from full mount and side mount on several occassions. While Ott attempted to stand in the last minute of the fight, Rosholt landed a solid knee to his face, dropping him to the canvas before doctors declared him unable to continue.

Full results after the jump.

“It’s always darkest just before the dawn.  Also during a knockout.”

Another day at the office for those tournament-throwin’ characters in Bellator, with an earlier start time meant to stay out of Big Daddy Zuffa’s sun and results guaranteed to make us look like we have no friggin’ clue what we’re talking about.  For the record, the CagePotato picks for the featherweight quarterfinals in Concho, Oklahoma were Larkin, Reis, Karakhanyan, and Straus.  So who’s up, who’s down, and who choked?  If necessary, re-introduce yourselves to the 145ers, then come on in for quick results from the event.

Just don’t mention last night’s UFC event.  Some of us are wearing our Pride shirts in mourning.

(How quickly they forget that time you totally jumped out of that pool.)

It’s a real bummer of a Monday for Jake Rosholt, as the 8-2 middleweight announced on his Twitter that he’s been cut from the UFC following a first-round submission loss to Kendall Grove at UFC 106.  Rosholt was terse about the whole thing, writing only: "Not a good day.  Just found out I got cut by the #UFC." 

Rosholt, a Division I wrestling champ and four-time All American at Oklahoma State, was undefeated before transitioning from the WEC to the UFC earlier this year, but he’s gone 1-2 since stepping in the Octagon, with his lone win coming via arm triangle chokeout against Chris Leben at UFC 102 in August.  What’s got to make this a really tough pill for Rosholt to swallow is that, right up until he got caught in that triangle, he was dominating Grove.  He pushed him all over the cage, took him down with ease, and appeared to be on his way toward a quick victory.  But one little mistake cost him the fight, and as an extra little kick in the balls he now he finds himself out of a job. 

Obviously some other organization can find a use for him, and it seems very likely that he’ll make his way back to the UFC in the future, but for right now it has to sting knowing that he should be spending his win bonus and thinking about who’s next.  Instead he’s circling the MMA want ads and reusing Ziploc bags to save money.  Just goes to show how easily fortunes change in this sport.  Keep your head up, Jake. 

(Better get the next ice-pack ready. Photo courtesy of Yardbarker.)

Alright, let’s get to it…

— After an injury forced Josh Thomson to drop out of his Strikeforce rematch with Gilbert Melendez, a replacement has reportedly been found, according to The Fight Network. Taking on Melendez at Saturday’s "Shamrock vs. Diaz" event will be Rodrigo Damm, an 8-2 veteran of Bodog Fight and Sengoku. Damm hasn’t competed since last August, when he was choked out by Eiji Mitsuoka at Sengoku Fourth Battle.

— Winless since his WEC debut against Cub Swanson in December 2007, Jens Pulver will be given another chance to score a victory at WEC 41 (June 7th, Sacramento). Lil’ Evil will be facing 20-year-old up-and-comer Josh "The Fluke" Grispi (12-1), who has gone 2-0 in the WEC with first-round stoppages over Mark Hominick and Micah Miller. WEC 41 will be headlined by the rematch between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown.

— TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah has an opponent for his much-delayed return at UFC 101 (August 8th, Philadelphia). MMA Weekly confirms that Sadollah’s welterweight debut will come against Johny Hendricks, a 5-0 transfer from the WEC’s defunct 170-pound division who won a unanimous decision over Alex Serdyukov at WEC 39 last month. Also on the card will be another welterweight bout between Tamdan McCrory (who’s coming off a submission victory over Ryan Madigan at UFC 96 in March) and John Howard (who most recently won a Fight of the Night bonus for his split-decision victory over Chris Wilson at UFC 94 in January). UFC 101 will be headlined by the lightweight title scrap between BJ Penn and Kenny Florian.

(Props: MMA Mania)

Hey, look who’s getting into the video blog act — it’s Joe Lauzon, who lets us into his world as he flies from Boston to Tampa to take on Jeremy Stephens at UFC Fight Night 17. Him and his crew gawk at Tiffani Amber Thiessen, visit Gracie Tampa, do a news spot with Rich Clementi…and that’s about it. Maybe he’ll have a shock pen in tomorrow’s episode and things will really get interesting. Below: New UFC signee Jake Rosholt gives RawVegas.tv a tour of his house in Las Vegas, which contains about as many live animals as dead ones; watch to the end and you’ll see the most amazing pet trick ever.

(Props: CageWriter) 

(Urijah Faber talks upcoming title defense with ESPN)

The WEC has announced the full fight card for their September 10 event in Florida, and once again it’s a fairly stacked show from Zuffa’s minor leagues. Most notable is the official announcement that former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver will be taking on Leonard “Just Try and Make Those Charges Stick” Garcia. It also includes Urijah Faber defending his title against Mike Brown, and Paulo Filho making his return to action in a rematch against Chael Sonnen.

Making their WEC debuts are two Team Takedown members — Jake Rosholt and Johny Hendricks — who are definitely worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Here’s the full lineup:

Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown
Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen
Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia
Danillo Villefort vs. Jake Rosholt
Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone
Rani Yahya vs. Yoshihiro Maeda
David Avellan vs. Tim McKenzie
Johny Hendricks vs. Alex Serdyukov
Ed Ratcliff vs. Danny Castillo